There were no raids, no owners of medical marijuana dispensaries in handcuffs, no inventories seized.

Despite tough talk from Michigan’s attorney general and worry from local store owners, medical marijuana dispensaries in Jackson County still are in business more than a month after a state Court of Appeals ruling called them a public nuisance and illegal.

“It’s still a very unsettled area of the law,” said Jackson County Prosecutor Hank Zavislak.

On Aug. 24, a three-judge appeals court panel ruled a Mount Pleasant dispensary violated the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, because the act does not allow dispensaries or patients to sell marijuana to other patients. In the wake of the ruling, state Attorney General Bill Schuette announced he would instruct county prosecutors on how to use the ruling to shut down the “pot shops” creating a “marijuana free-for-all.” Schuette said the ruling, binding on local courts, empowered prosecutors to file civil-nuisances actions seeking the closure of dispensaries.

Zavislak said such civil matters are not typically handled by the prosecutor’s office. Cities, townships and villages may pursue civil action if they like, Zavislak said, but until the law is further clarified, the prosecutor’s office is steering clear.

“It is not our intent to pursue the civil injunction route,” Zavislak said last week. “When they bring us criminal matters, we’re going to go after it aggressively.”

Schuette believes most county prosecutors are enforcing the law and using the tool provided by the appeals court to shut down dispensaries. Each county, city and municipality will apply the law thoroughly and correctly, Schuette said.

“I think it has had a big impact on the dispensaries,” Schuette said Wednesday. “They are shutting down, and people expect that.”

Ruling heads to Supreme CourtThe Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that rocked — or not — medical marijuana dispensaries is headed to the state Supreme Court.

The owners of the Mount Pleasant dispensary at the center of the case appealed the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday, said Mary Chartier, one of the attorneys representing the owners.

“With the stroke of a pen, the Court of Appeals has closed off a lawful and viable option for qualifying patients in the State of Michigan to receive a safe supply of their legal medicine,” the appeal brief to the Supreme Court stated.
On Aug. 24, the appeals court overturned an Isabella County Circuit Court decision and ruled that dispensaries are a public nuisance and in violation of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

The state has until Nov. 1 to submit an opposing brief to the Supreme Court. The attorney general’s office, which supports the appeals court decision, also will submit a brief to the high court, said John Selleck, a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Schuette.

He did not seem phased by the dispensaries still operating in Jackson County.

“I have every confidence in Hank. He is a tremendous leader in Jackson County,” Schuette said.

The Citizen Patriot knows of five medical marijuana dispensaries operating in Jackson County. In the city, there is the Jackson County Compassion Club on E. Michigan Avenue and HydroWorld on N. West Avenue. Sweet Greens is on Fifth Street in Michigan Center. Wizard’s Smoke Shop, on Lansing Avenue, and Sweet Leaf, on Wildwood, are in Blackman Township.

Blackman and Leoni townships have decided not to pursue dispensaries through civil lawsuits. Blackman Township Supervisor Dan Hawkins sent a letter to Zavislak seeking further guidance and is awaiting a reply.

There has been only one complaint lodged concerning the township’s dispensaries. No complaints have been brought against the one dispensary in Leoni Township, Supervisor Todd Brittain said.

As long as Blackman-Leoni Township Public Safety officers feel the dispensaries are legal, the townships will not spend money to pursue them.

“Why would you want to waste your resources on something like that?” Brittain said. “It’s taxpayer dollars you are pretty much blowing.”

Jackson City Councilmember Dan Greer said the city is deferring to the county prosecutor on the issue. Greer chairs the City Affairs Committee, which is figuring a way to regulate medical marijuana establishments in the city. The city currently has a moratorium in place prohibiting new dispensaries. Greer said the moratorium is not a sign of the city’s opposition to dispensaries but indicative of the confusion surrounding the issue.

“We want to follow the laws of the land,” Greer said. “I don’t see the city of Jackson as trying to become some sort of Gestapo unit.”

Since the ruling, police raided one dispensary in Jackson, but that had nothing to do with the appeals court decision. The search warrants executed by the Michigan State Police and the Jackson Narcotic Enforcement Team on Sept. 29 at HydroWorld, 834 N. West Ave., were issued because police believe the dispensary was selling marijuana to people without cards. The case remains under investigation, and HydroWorld has since reopened.

Danny Trevino, owner of the HydroWorld shops, said his business has run in accordance with the law for years. HydroWorld did nothing criminal, he said.

Statewide, the environment for dispensaries has changed. Matt Abel, a founding attorney of Cannabis Counsel in Detroit, said some areas — he named Gaylord, Otsego and Lansing specifically — have used the ruling to close down dispensaries. Most dispensaries in Lansing have shut down, said attorney Mary Chartier, one of the attorneys who represented the Mount Pleasant dispensary in the appeals court case. Chartier appealed the case to the Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Michael Komorn, a Southfield-based attorney specializing in medical marijuana law, said transactions between patients and caregivers once conducted publicly in a place of business will still happen, but privately. The proliferation of dispensaries is over, he said.

A few dispensaries in the county shut down the day the court released its decision. Others nervously waited for police to knock on their doors, a knock that never came. Sherri Williams just hopes something changes. Her Wizard’s Smoke Shop is struggling after the ruling.

“If things don’t change, I might have to close my doors,” Williams said. “It’s been horrible. I put my whole life into this. Now, I might be going under, and I’m $100,000 in debt.”

Williams said since the ruling, patients are confused about what is legal and what is not. They stay away all together, hurting Williams’ dispensary and the sale of tobacco products she relies on to keep the store solvent.

When Wizard’s Smoke Shop, 2008 Lansing Ave., opened in December 2010, business started slow. Eventually, Williams built up a clientele of consistent patients. She used to keep between $70 and $80 a day in her drawer. Now, she keeps maybe $15 a week.

Williams stayed open the day of the ruling, telling her employees, “If they come in, they come in. If they don’t, they don’t.” Since the ruling, she stopped accepting new patients and makes sure everyone who comes in has a “hard card,” the actual identification card issued by the state.

Patients appear to be the most affected by the appeals court ruling. Vivian Curl, a patient and local advocate for the use of medical marijuana, said patients feel like criminals after the decision. They think going to a dispensary means they are breaking the law.

“People are afraid. They are afraid to go into these establishments,” Curl said.

Dispensaries are a key part to the stable supply, Curl said. A registered patient since September 2010 with scoliosis, Curl has used dispensaries only a few times. Once, her caregiver’s entire crop was wiped out by spider mites.

“I would have been in a jam without Sweet Leaf or Sweet Greens or JC3 (Jackson County Compassion Club) or a local dispensary,” she said. “I would have been without my medicine that helps me.”